A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

January 21, 2011

Pattern: ImprovisedYarn: Opal possibly? I got it years ago in a swap.Needles: US0 Addi TurbosNotes: Back in September I met Samantha Roshak. She was knitting a long tube from sock yarn for her Totally Tubular Socks pattern. I liked the concept and one day a few months ago as I was getting ready to go to a movie I provisionally cast on 72 sts and started knitting. I planned to knit all the way to the end of the skein then use a contrast color for the cuffs, heels and toes of the socks. But I couldn't take it. This skein was endless. I knit a basic wedge toe. Then I cut one half of one stitch at the middle of the length of the tube. I unraveled a single round. I then picked up the stitches on the top half and knit another toe. I decided where to put the heels and again cut only one leg of a single stitch and opened the middle of the sock. Then I knit an afterthought heel which is just knitting another basic wedge toe. I did the same on the second sock. I put the rest of the live stitches from the "bottom" sock and then undid my cast on and put those stitches back on the needles too. I knit ribbing up two at a time hoping to use every last bit of the yarn. But again I ran out of patience and bound off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off (I find Cat Bordhi's video more helpful then reading the Knitty instructions). Then I happily threw out the last few yards of yarn!

If you're intrigued about this method of sock knitting, please buy Sam's pattern which is an absolute steal at $2.00. I bought a copy just to check it out. She includes loads of explanations and links to videos that demonstrate many steps of the design. I had already knit most of my socks before I got a copy of the pattern so my sock technique varies a bit from her pattern.